What is Indie Hackers?

Indie Hackers is a place where the founders of profitable businesses and side projects can share their stories transparently, and where entrepreneurs can come to read and learn from those examples. It's also a community where individual "indie hackers" can come together to share their experiences, give and receive feedback, and rely on one another for support.

What makes someone an "indie hacker"?

You're an indie hacker if you've set out to make money independently (hence "indie"). That means the money is coming directly to you from your customers, not from an employer. Other than that, there are no requirements! Indie hackers are often solo founders, software engineers, and bootstrapped, but it's totally okay if you have cofounders, can't code, and have raised money.

How did you build Indie Hackers?

Indie Hackers is an Ember.js app on the front-end. On the back-end, I'm using Ember FastBoot for server-side rendering. The app runs on a Node.js server managed by AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Most pages are cached via CloudFront.

I did all the design myself. I built the blog from scratch. I built the forum from scratch, too, and I use Firebase to store the data and accounts. All of the blog and interview content is stored in JSON and Markdown files that I host on S3.

How does Indie Hackers make money?

Historically, I've experimented with advertising and affiliate links. In March of 2017, however, Indie Hackers was acquired by Stripe! As a result, Stripe supports the site and I'm no longer accepting new inquiries for advertisement.

What are your goals for the site?

Philosophically, indie hacking is where my heart lies. Before joining Stripe, I'd never worked a full-time job for anyone else, and I want to do whatever I can to help others achieve their dreams of financial independence.

My goal is for Indie Hackers to be a community that helps early founders and aspiring entrepreneurs learn from one another, take the plunge, and grow their businesses.

It's hard as hell, but it's so fulfilling to work on your own terms! 🤗

How do you verify the monthly revenue figures of the companies you interview?

I don't. Take everything you read here with a grain of salt, or do your own research if you're planning to make a big decision based on an Indie Hackers Q&A. These are interviews, not encyclopedia entries or investigative journalism!

Can you interview me or my company?

I don't interview everyone, but I do say yes to people who have an inspiring and educational story to share. Just head to the submission page and read the guidelines. Feel free to point others there as well.

What's the best way to contact you?

If you're looking for help, feedback, or guidance with something personal, I encourage you to post on the forum instead of contacting me. You'll probably get some great replies from experienced entrepreneurs, including me. If you email me directly, I'll just end up pointing you to the forum, anyway. 😁

For anything else, tweet @csallen or email courtland@indiehackers.com.